Tuju Intelligence's 'Pufferfish Navigation' Smart Patient Guidance System Deployed in 581 Hospitals, Files IPO Prospectus

Due to the high volume of visitors and the complex array of departments in hospitals, patients frequently surround doctors and nurses to ask for directions on a daily basis. Even though hospitals have invested significant human and material resources in establishing numerous information desks, these measures still fail to meet the substantial demand for inquiries, leading to a decline in patient satisfaction. With the acceleration of smart hospital initiatives and the widespread adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, viable solutions to this problem have emerged.

To address the difficulty patients face in navigating hospitals, Palmap Intelligence Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Palmap Intelligence”) officially entered the healthcare sector in January 2018. By leveraging indoor positioning and navigation technology, the company provides patients with real-time, end-to-end guidance throughout their medical visits, thereby effectively alleviating the workload on hospital information desks.

Zhang Yang, Founder and CEO of Palmap Intelligence, stated that indoor positioning and navigation technologies have developed earlier abroad. Walmart has installed indoor positioning products in its U.S. supermarkets to track the locations of shoppers and shopping carts, thereby gaining insights into customer-preferred products and optimizing store layouts accordingly.

Zhang Yang realized that leveraging indoor positioning and navigation technologies in venues such as shopping malls and supermarkets to capture personnel location data for marketing purposes is highly effective. Inspired by Walmart, Zhang Yang developed a strong interest in indoor location-based services. “I find indoor positioning and navigation technology fascinating, and I believe it will definitely be applied in many scenarios in the future.”

Upon returning to China, Zhang Yang found that outdoor navigation technology had become highly mature, with giants such as Baidu Maps and Amap dominating the market. However, the indoor navigation sector remained largely untapped, presenting vast market opportunities. In December 2012, Zhang Yang founded Palmap Intelligence, focusing on high-precision indoor mapping and indoor positioning and navigation services.

Zhang Yang graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in biology and had no prior experience in indoor positioning. Although crossing industry boundaries is often viewed with skepticism due to the significant expertise gap, Zhang Yang believes that “passion, not technical expertise, is the primary prerequisite for entrepreneurship.” Thus, despite being an outsider, he plunged headfirst into the field of indoor location-based services.

Zhang Yang stated, “At the time of its founding, there was a severe shortage of domestic talent in indoor positioning and navigation, and no mature models were available for reference; we had to start from scratch.” Compared with outdoor mapping, the development of indoor maps is significantly more complex. Indoor maps cannot rely on GPS for positioning, and three-dimensional spatial localization indoors presents another major challenge. From data acquisition and mapping technologies to indoor positioning and navigation solutions, Zhang Yang led his team through iterative exploration and research and development.

After years of dedicated research, Palmap Intelligence has amassed over 27,000 indoor map datasets, with its indoor positioning and navigation technology deployed across a variety of venues, including shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, exhibition centers, nursing homes, and parking garages. In addition to providing basic indoor navigation and positioning services to users, the company leverages consumer-side data to analyze user routes and foot traffic, thereby optimizing venue configurations.

In 2016, Palmap Intelligence successfully listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), becoming the first company in China’s indoor location-based services sector to go public. On August 26, 2019, the Smart China Expo opened in Chongqing. As the expo’s sole designated navigation system, the company’s developed “Pufferfish Exhibitor Guide” recorded a cumulative total of 140,000 uses on the first day.

In January 2018, Palmap Intelligence began to enter the medical field, providing patients with full-process medical guidance services based on indoor positioning and navigation technology.

Zhang Yang, Founder and CEO of Palmap Intelligence, stated, “For hospital patients, indoor navigation services are a critical necessity. Unlike leisurely browsing in shopping malls, patients visit hospitals for medical treatment with clear destinations.” However, Zhang also noted that modern hospitals are expanding in size, often causing patients to spend considerable time locating specific departments. Frequent inquiries from patients also consume significant amounts of time for doctors and nurses.

In this challenging situation, Palmap Intelligence has developed "Pufferfish Guide" by deeply integrating hospital visitation processes with indoor positioning and navigation technology. By providing patients with end-to-end visit guidance services, it alleviates the consultation pressure on hospital information desks, allowing doctors and nurses to focus on their core responsibilities.

Pufferfish Guide Mini Program (Image provided by the company)

To increase the adoption rate of Palmap Wayfinding in hospitals, Palmap Intelligence has designed multiple access points. Users can access the indoor positioning and navigation services provided by Palmap Wayfinding through the Palmap Wayfinding mini-program, the hospital’s WeChat official account, QR codes, and the hospital’s information kiosks.

By integrating with the hospital’s appointment registration system, Hetun Yinlu pushes notifications to patients via the hospital’s official WeChat account upon completion of registration, proactively providing consultation guidance and navigation services. Leveraging real-time location-based navigation and dynamic monitoring of departmental queue lengths, the system optimizes each patient’s consultation plan and route, guiding them to complete each examination efficiently.

In addition, Palmap Intelligence has installed large guidance screens and deployed QR codes in hospital lobbies, elevator entrances, and other high-traffic areas to help patients locate departments and plan their routes. By scanning the QR codes, patients can also access the “Pufferfish Navigation” service and obtain relevant information about the hospital.

Hospital Wayfinding Display Screen (Image Provided by the Enterprise)

Zhang Yang positions Hetun Yinlu as a convenience-oriented service product. Therefore, hospital amenities such as water dispensers and wheelchairs can also be located via Hetun Yinlu. Furthermore, by recognizing patients’ registration information, Hetun Yinlu can identify those with potential mobility impairments and recommend routes that require minimal walking.

In recent years, with advancements in healthcare standards, hospital campuses have expanded significantly, and patient care pathways have become increasingly complex. Peking University International Hospital boasts a total gross floor area of 440,000 square meters, including approximately 320,000 square meters dedicated to medical facilities, making it one of the largest single-structure medical buildings in Asia. As the flagship project of Peking University Medical City, the hospital serves approximately 5,000 outpatients daily, placing substantial inquiry demands on its information desks.

In March 2019, Palmap Intelligence provided Peking University International Hospital with a full-process patient navigation and companion system. The deployment covered an area of over 200,000 square meters and included more than 4,000 Bluetooth devices, enabling comprehensive 2D/3D indoor mapping, department search, and route planning and navigation. More importantly, the “Heton Guide” service delivers real-time push notifications throughout the patient journey, clearly informing patients of their next consultation or examination destination and providing optimized route guidance. Currently, over 1,000 patients use Heton Guide daily at the hospital, resulting in a significant decrease in complaints.

The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University is the largest Grade-A tertiary hospital in Hunan Province, renowned as “Southern Xiangya.” The hospital serves over 10,000 outpatients daily. In May 2019, after implementing the “Haitun Yinlu” system, more than 20,000 messages were pushed daily, enabling patients to access triage information services promptly and significantly reducing the inquiry burden on the triage desk.

In less than two years since entering the healthcare sector, Palmap Intelligence’s “Pufferfish Guide” intelligent patient escort and navigation product has been deployed in 581 hospitals, including the Chinese PLA General Hospital (301 Hospital), Beijing Children’s Hospital, Shanghai General Hospital, and China-Japan Friendship Hospital. By the end of 2018, Palmap Intelligence had also partnered with the Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Center to provide intelligent navigation services for 38 hospitals and 51 campuses under its administration.

In April 2018, the National Health Commission issued the “Standards and Specifications for Hospital Information Construction in China (Trial).” The new regulations require hospitals to provide intelligent navigation within the hospital premises for patients via dedicated fixed terminals or mobile devices. In March 2019, the National Health Commission released the “Notice on Issuing the Graded Evaluation Standard System for Smart Hospital Services (Trial),” which indicated that “provision of indoor navigation services” is one of the items in the graded evaluation of smart hospital services.

Discussing the prospects of the indoor positioning and navigation market in hospitals, Zhang Yang stated, “Driven by policy, I believe this is a market worth hundreds of billions of yuan.”

In addition, Palmap Intelligence leverages indoor positioning technology to provide asset management services for hospitals. Zhang Yang stated, “In countries across Europe and the United States, the management of medical assets has achieved comprehensive visualization, traceability, and controllability.” Currently, China’s asset management model still relies on manual inventory, registration, and retrieval, which is labor-intensive and inefficient. There remains significant room for improvement in the utilization efficiency of medical assets throughout their lifecycle.

Palmap Intelligence’s Hospital Asset Manager enables real-time monitoring, management, and inventory of medical assets by attaching location tags to mobile medical devices such as ECG machines, blood gas analyzers, defibrillators, and blood purification systems. It enhances visual data reporting and supports doctors and nurses in quickly locating the equipment they need.